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Published: March 13th 2007
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My breakfast on JL710
Somehow I find it exciting to have my meal 30,000 ft in the air. Haha. It's hard to find a single word to describe Tokyo. If you ask me how Tokyo is, I can easily find dozens of adjectives to describe the city, among which are "dazzling", "fast-paced", "efficient", "amazing", "crowded", "breath-taking", "religious", "disciplined", etc etc. If you ask me to use only one word, I guess the best choice is "exciting". Tokyo is indeed exciting. The city is like a hyperactive kid who is trying to attract attention, and it succeeded in attracting my attention. As a result, I'm also feeling hyperactive. Life is fast-paced in Tokyo, but I like the speed and efficiency of the Japaneses.
People in Tokyo are also courteous and considerate. People switch their mobile phones off or to silent mode on trains, and people never talk on their phones on trains. On escalators, people automatically keep left so that those in a hurry can walk on the right. On corridors and stairs, people automatically keep to one side. Everywhere, from train platforms and bus stops to shops and restaurants, people automatically queue up. Whenever you enter a place, you will be greeted by someone. Whenever you leave, someone will say farewell to you. Whenever you buy something, the
cashier will say thank you and bow. Even if you never buy anything, the staffs will still say thank you and bow. Everything and everyone is punctual, from transport schedules to appointments. It's hard to find another place in the world where people are so well-behaved and disciplined. (Even my hometown Singapore has a lot of things to learn from Tokyo. In Singapore, people still cut queues, people still litter and smoke, people still talk loudly on the phone in buses/trains, and some people even blast music loudly in buses/trains.)
Anyway, I happen to be in Tokyo because I am invited by Mitsui Chemicals to attend an international symposium in Chiba. (Refer to my next post on the symposium.) The symposium is on 14th and 15th March. Besides me, 2 of my NUS applied chem juniors Victor and Mingxian were also selected. The 3 of us left Singapore on the night of 12th March and arrived in the early morning of 13th March. We decided to spend one day in Tokyo, before making our way to Okura Chiba Hotel in the evening. (The hotel was arranged by Mitsui Chemicals.)
Once we arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport, we had
a choice of two train lines - JR Line or Keisei Line, to get into downtown Tokyo. Keisei Line is cheaper, so we decided to take the Keisei Line. The Keisei Line has several categories of train services. Speedliner, the fastest way between Narita Airport and Ueno, is the most expensive. Being stingy, we decided to take the local train, which is the cheapest. It turned out that we made a silly mistake. The local train was very very slow, because it stopped at every single stop between Narita Airport and Ueno!!! In the end, it took us more than 2 hours to reach Ueno!!! (If we take Speedliner, we would have taken less than 1 hour, but we would need to pay 920 yen more.)
Nevertheless, we managed to have a good long rest on the long train ride, so we could explore the city with lots of energy. First we stored our luggages in the lockers in Ueno Station. Then we went to visit Ueno Park. When we walked into the park, we were stunned to see a blooming sakura tree!!! (Sakura = cherry blossom, a phenomenon that only occurs in spring. During the sakura season, a
pink tide of cherry blossom sweeps across Japan as hundreds of sakura trees start to bloom with pink little flowers.) However, only a few sakura trees were blooming in Ueno Park. The majority of sakura trees had not bloomed yet. But we felt very lucky that we managed to see blooming sakura trees.
We spent some time walking in Ueno Park and the shopping district near Ueno station. We saw a 100-yen shop, where everything was sold for only 105 yen (incl. tax). We were very excited and we shopped like mad in the shop. (I bought 20 items in one go, including candies, crackers, sausages, canned food, instant noodles, bottled drinks, etc.) Then, Mingxian brought us to Matsuya for lunch. Matsuya is a fast-food chain selling rice bowls and rice sets. The way of ordering is rather unique. You have to buy a ticket from a vending machine, and then you pass the ticket to the waiter, who will immediately prepare your meal and serve you within several minutes. In the tiny restaurant, we witnessed the speed and efficiency of the restaurant staffs. Within 3 minutes, I received my piping hot beef rice set. Despite the speed, the
Sakura station
But this "sakura" is not the famous sakura flower... quality was not compromised. This was my first meal in Japan and it gave me a good impression of Japanese food.
From Ueno, we walked to Akihabara, known as the land of electronics. There, we entered a DVD shop, and we were surprised to find 3 entire floors of "Adult DVDs"! While leaving Akihabara, Victor's shoes suddenly splited open. Luckily, we found a traditional shoe shop in Kanda subway station, where Victor got his shoes repaired. (We were rather surprised to see a traditional shoe shop in a busy subway station.) After fixing Victor's shoes, we went to Asakusa, where the famous Senso-ji is located. (The Senso-ji is a temple housing the Goddess of Mercy.) In Asakusa, we took photos at the Kaminari-mon (Thunder Gate), walked through the overcrowded shopping street of Nakamise Dori and visited the famous Senso-ji. In Senso-ji, Victor even tried fortune-telling. He was very happy when the fortune-slip indicated excellent luck. (The fortune-telling in Senso-ji is quite similar to that in various Chinese temples such as Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong and the Guanyin Temple in Singapore. A wooden stick with a number between 1 and 100 is picked randomly, and the number
Keisei Ueno station
After more than 2 hours, we finally reached Ueno... (Next time I will never take the local train again. 2 hours were too much.) on the stick would indicate your fortune.)
After visiting Asakusa, Mingxian had to go to Shinagawa to meet his former bosses in Mitsubishi Chemical. (He worked for 6 months as an intern in Mitsubishi Chemical last year.) Hence, Victor and I decided to explore the area around Tokyo Station. We went to the Imperial Plaza, hoping to visit the Imperial Gardens. But the garden was already closed when we arrived. In the end we walked to Ginza, where we explored the Sony Centre, Nissan Showroom, the Kabuki-za (a theatre for Japanese opera) and several department stores. At night, we went to Ueno station to meet Mingxian and collect our luggages from the lockers. From Ueno, we travelled to Tokyo Station to change to the Keiyo Line to Chiba-minato station, where the Okura Chiba Hotel is located.
So that's all for my very first day in Japan. It was indeed an exciting and fun-filled day, and I'm looking forward to more exploration in Tokyo after the symposium! (Refer to my later posts for the symposium and my post-symposium travels!)
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